Photographer Ian Hughes usually focused on people in his work, so the first time he photographed the floodlight pouring out of a stadium he took a self-portrait with the stadium the background. Later, he realised the effect of the floodlights was enough: “I decided to photograph the grounds just as they are.”

It was that feeling he wanted to capture as an adult. Previously a cruise ship photographer, Hughes now works in a call centre by day but since 2008 spends most Tuesday and Wednesday evenings of the football season on trains and buses to football grounds to pursue this project.

For Hughes, the light from these stadiums casts an almost magical glow over the surrounding areas. “I like the way the light transforms the whole environment. It turns something that looks so normal, like a cul-de-sac, a farmer’s field or a garage into a spectacle.’